Triceratops
"he was my favorite when I was a kid. Now I see her, she's the most beautiful thing I ever saw." -- Alan Grant ''Triceratops ''One of the most recognizable dinosaurs, Triceratops is also considered as one of the most dangerous herbivores in Jurassic Park. Short sighted and ill tempered, Triceratops is fast to attack and able to throw a car into the air with its enormous horns, which are also deadly defensive weapons. These dinosaurs spend the hottest part of the day sleeping in the shadow or cooling themselves in ponds. Most of their activity happens at night or during the coolest part of the day. In the movie most where females but Isla Sorna there are males and females living together as a herd. Appearance and Size Appearance Triceratops was a large dinosaur that has two long horns on its head and smaller one on its nose and a frill for defense. The Triceratops' skin was mostly brown and the end of its mouth is beaked, with teeth farther back. It had a huge frilled head with horns over each eye that could reach over 4 feet long and with a third smaller horn on its nose. These horns could have potentially made Triceratops a dangerous creature for predators to prey on. Of the two known prehistoric species, the InGen Triceratops most closely resembles Triceratops horridus though it has a snout more akin to Triceratops prorsus. Size Triceratops was estimated to grow between 26 and 29.5 feet long, 9.5 to 9.8 feet tall, and can weigh between 6.1 to 12 tonnes (long tons), or 13,000 to 26,000 pounds. Abilities Strength and Combat Triceratops are large dinosaurs that seem to have incredible strength. Juveniles in Jurassic World were seen in the Petting Zoo carrying children on their backs. Quick to aggrivate, even accidentally, Triceratops will charge at anything that it may consider a threat, be it predator or another harmless herbivore. Despite its bulk Triceratops can charge alarmingly fast, throwing its weight into an aggressor and driving the double brow horns deep into the flesh. Their short frills are solid and bony, and provides some protection around the neck region. A full-sized, healthy Triceratops is capable of lifting animals and objects up to a tonne in weight with its head alone, and the deadly brow horns have the potential to inflict fatal wounds. Triceratops has even been known to kill a full grown Tyrannosaurus rex via impaling, while smaller predators such as Velociraptors are typically trampled to death. For this reason most predators avoid hunting Triceratops, as sometimes merely walking too close to these animals can prove to be dangerous. Communication While adult's calls are composed of deep bellows, grunts, snorts and rumbles, the young's calls are higher in pitch, consisting of squeals, bleats and squeaks, producing a shrill cry when scared. Triceratops can communicate freely with members of their species. They use a range of expressive bellows and snorts.When communicating, they make some times make high-pitched dog like barkings, either to warn of predators or to intimidate each other. They also use their vocalization to comfort their young. Ingen scientists also think they have a language their one of the few dinosaurs who might have a language. Speed, Durability and Stamina Triceratops have been have been known to migrate. They have also been known to be strong swimmers so this means that they likely had a lot of stamina. They had a large body and likely had tough skin, able to withstand at least a few attacks from large predators such as Triceratops based on skeletons with rehealed bites that could only have come from the Tyrannosaurus. Their frill helped protect the vulnerable neck, especially so since it lacked "fenestrae", which are natural openings in bone. Triceratops even stood on top fire didn’t seem to have too munch of faze on the under belly. As their shown to run fast enough to catch up to human. And like many of large saurian herbivores they can gallop up to up 35 mph Creation Triceratops was the first successful dinosaurs. Thirteen Triceratops were created by InGen in their compound on Isla Sorna where they were taken care of by the workers there cloned by InGen in the Isla Sorna compound, where they were taken care of by workers. They were taken to Isla Nublar later in life, likely at six months of age, where thirteen specimens would serve as attractions. Triceratops were highly sociable. However, they were also aggressive as well, so they had to be treated with care. They had two skin variations, one being brown and the other being beige with stripes down the back. Only 10 remained on Isla Sorna. Unlike the originals, the cloned adults have small triangular spikes around the frill that can only be founded on juveniles which in reality the adult's spikes get flatter until they become less visible and the clones have two small cheek horns instead of one. History Jurassic Park When the main characters were taking a tour of the park in the Explorers, they noticed Gerry Harding, the veterinarian, tending to a sick Triceratops. In a deleted scene, Ellie theorizes that the Triceratops swallowed the plant Tetrazygia bicolor, better known as the West Indian Lilac, believing they were gizzard stones. But after the 1993 incident the wise members of the herd, pass down info on what plants are are safe to their infants, by regurgitating the right plant-matter into their nests. On Isla Sorna When Hurricane Clarissa hit Isla Sorna, the InGen workers on the island evacuated the island. The Triceratops were either freed by the workers or escaped on their own from sensing the disaster was going to happen. In the wild, they found and ate lysine-rich plants such as legumes, nuts, or soy, to counteract the "lysine contingency". 1997 Isla Sorna Incident In The Lost World, a Triceratops and its infant were captured by the InGen team when they reached Isla Sorna. Sarah Harding and Nick Van Owen later frees all the dinosaurs. The Triceratops in particular does a lot of damage to the camp. On Isla Sorna (2001) A herd of Triceratops, pointed out by Dr. Grant, can be seen when the plane flies over the island. Transported to Isla Nublar (2004) In 2004, all the surviving dinosaurs including Triceratops from Isla Sorna were transported to Isla Nublar. Jurassic World The InGen created new clones of Triceratops for Masrani Global Corporation's Jurassic World on Isla Nublar. These clones were identical to the brown skinned clones that were created before. They were slightly more social than the previous recreation, seeming to like being scratched under their frills and having their pictures taken. However, like the old clones they still had trouble discerning what was edible for them, at least when they were juveniles. The adults lived in the Gyrosphere valley and the self-titled Triceratops Territory, but the juveniles, or at least some of the juveniles, lived in the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo where they could be petted and even ridden by human children. Jurassic World Incident When the freed residents of the Jurassic World Aviary attacked the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo, a saddled juvenile Triceratops was grabbed by the saddle by an attacking Pteranodon. In the film, it was dropped back to the ground, but it is unknown if it survived the entire incident. Jurassic World Blue (Chapter 1) A baby Triceratops was seen chasing a butterfly, seprated from it's herd. Blue jumps out and trys to attack the baby, who doesn't back down either. Before a Pteranodon, picked it up trying to lift it and drop it. Blue however, scares it off helping the baby triceratops escape and find it's parents/herd. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom After the events the 2015 incident Jurassic World was shut down, Isla Nublar was abandoned and left the dinosaurs and the Triceratops is confirmed to be still alive but endangered on Isla Nublar. When Mount sibo many were seen. at least 4 Triceratops were saved, three adults and a juvenile and escaped Lockwood Manor. Gallery Known Triceratops * Bakhita * Lady Margaret * Ralph Trivia * Despite being a popular dinosaur and appearing in the films, the Triceratops is seen only a short period of time in the sequels. It only appeared for under a minute in the 2nd film and a few seconds in the 3rd film. However Jurassic World breaks this trend as the babies were use to give rides to young children and we see some adults in the Gyrosphere. * Triceratops may be a young Torosaurus as that may explain why it lacked fenestrae. If Triceratops is a young Torosaurus it may have grown fenestrae as it aged. * Since Triceratops small triangular spikes that run around the edge of the frill can only young and juveniles in real life since adults spikes flatten more as they become mature making it less visible. * A baby Triceratops was built for a scene where one of the kids rides it. Special effects technicians worked on this effect for a year but the scene was cut at the last minute as Steven Spielberg thought it would ruin the pacing of the film. A similar scene, however, was later used in Jurassic World (2015). * In the egg-hatching scene, a new-born baby Triceratops was originally supposed to come out of the egg, but it was changed to a Velociraptor. * The Triceratops is Grant's favorite dinosaur, and it was also Steven Spielberg's because "three horns are better than one". * The Triceratops scene was a major operation. Most of the dinosaur scenes were shot on sound-stages, but Steven Spielberg wanted this scene shot on location in Hawaii. The puppeteers loved this decision because the dust and the dirt tied it into the environment. It was also the first dinosaur the actors saw; they were blown away by its realism. Stan Winston's team dug a hole beneath the puppet and eight puppeteers below operated cables and push-rods. The backside of the Triceratops had a door with three or four men inside. The only one of the actors not impressed was Joseph Mazzello because the first dinosaur he got to see up close didn't do anything. To get the Triceratops to breathe, Gary Rydstrom blew into a toy called a "zube tube" to add the harmonics. * The sick Triceratops was designed with a very colorful pattern on its skin. Once the creature was brought on location, however, Stan Winston decided that, to be realistic, the animal should be covered with dirt from its surrounding environment. Category:Dinosaurs Category:Ceratopsians Category:Alive Category:Escaped Dinosaurs